Queen Rheesa awoke with a dry mouth. She was in the Auroran desert, searching for a rare diamond. Kalin had sent a group of native Aurorans with her to help her survive the dry countryside and they had been a lifesaver. They were on their way to a place the natives called the Palace of Sand. The home of the sand furies. Rheesa had seen them before, having fought them at Reaver's mansion. So she knew a bit of what they were up against. They had camped for the night a short ways away from the entrance to the palace, lest any of the creatures found them. Approaching the cave mouth in the morning, however, did not let them slip in unnoticed. Just before the opening sand furies sprang up, surrounding them. The soft jingling of the bells they liked to attach to their hoods and their angry hisses the only sound in the wasteland. Rheesa drew her sword as one launched itself at her, thrusting with its katana. Rheesa batted the blade aside and followed the motion, spinning and striking downward at the creature. It shrieked and fell back, clutching the gouge in its shoulder and another took its place. The queen turned at another shriek that was directly behind her and just barely missed running right into the furies wicked sword. It nicked her cheek and she turned into it, grabbing the blade with her left hand and swinging her right in to lop the things head off. She pulled it down and found herself facing two more that had joined the first. The one on the right leapt forward and spun mid-air, planning to slice at Rheesa. Rheesa leaned back as the katana whistled just past her nose and flung her hands out for balance. Using the momentum to swing up into a handstand, the hero kicked her legs at the fury, knocking the katana from its hands. When her feet were safely on the ground again she dashed forward, impaling the woman through the stomach. The two behind it wailed as the fury shuddered and hung limp. Rheesa let it slide off her sword and raised her arms to put it out of its pain.

"Ssstop!" one of the other two hissed. She threw her katana aside and ran to defend the fallen fury, "Ssssstop, ssshe iss only a child!" The remaining fury hissed and shrieked at her in what could only be their language, clearly angry. Rheesa took a few steps back, perplexed.

"You... can speak?"

The defender responded to the other, silencing her, and glared at Rheesa, "We sssspeak our tongue, and ssome know otherssss... My ssssissster doesss not approve of me ssspeaking with a human but thisss kalindi isss my own. I cannot watch her be sssslain."

"Kalindi?" Rheesa asked.

"Born of the ssssun. My child." The sand fury held the girl tightly and tried to stop the bleeding from her wound.

"I would not have hurt her, had you not attacked us."

"We do what we mussst. You sssseek the Sssstar and you cannot have it. None but the ssssanaa may keep it."

"I need it to fund Albion's defenses, I can't leave without it." Rheesa shook her head. The fury spat and hissed.

"No! You do not undersssstand!" She ripped of her hood to reveal her ruined face. Her lips were permanently curled back to brandish rows of small dagger-like teeth and what Rheesa had thought to just be the hoods that they wore were actually large pointed ears. Her eyes were sunken and wiped clear of their pupils. The fury behind her shrieked in anger, but removed her own hood as well, "The Sssstar is a dark evil we can no longer essscape! We are curssssssed to remain, ssssssshunned by our own."

"The Aurorans? You were once human?" Rheesa was taken aback.

"Hssss, no! Not human! Never!" she spat angrily, "We were Assssssvini, ssssandfolk. But that doesss not matter now. The Sssstar corruptssss uss. It mussst be kept from otherssss."

"My Queen," one of the Aurorans spoke up, "We have heard legends of these Asvini, but no one has ever truly seen one..."

The fury that Rheesa had stabbed moaned in pain and her mother shrieked frantically at the other. She only shook her head sadly. The mother sobbed something in their language, clutching the girl tighter. Rheesa, ignoring the fearful comments of the Aurorans, knelt next to the fury and held up her hands to show she meant no harm. The mother snapped her teeth at her and held the girl farther away.

"I control Willpower. I know some healing spells, I could help her." Rheesa said, "Hurry, she doesn't have much time!" The fury looked helplessly down at her daughter then back at Rheesa. She spat and shifted the girl closer to Rheesa.

"Help her!"

Rheesa summoned her Will and removed one of her gloves, passing her hand over the wound. A bright glow of magick flowed between them and the marred skin began to knit itself back together. The girl gasped and sat up instantly. She had a brief discussion with her mother and removed her own hood; she wore a ring of gold in her right ear. Looking up, wide-eyed, at Rheesa she spoke.

"You... help... me?" she asked slowly, having difficulty with the language.

Rheesa nodded, "My name is Rheesa. I'm... sorry for harming you." The fury shook her head vigorously and leapt back, out of her mother's arms. She landed near where her katana had fallen so she picked it up. Swirling it over her head, she drove it into the sand in front of herself and fell to one knee, bowing her head low. The third sand fury chattered at her in pure outrage while the mother just stared in shock. When she stood again, she stood taller and with more elegance than Rheesa had seen in any other sand fury. She silenced the other with a glare and spoke to her mother.

"Avanisssshwari thanksss you." the mother said, "Sssshe iss pleassed by your mercy. Againssst kalidasss counssel, ssshe wisssshess to honor you."

"Avanishwari is her name?"

"Not name." The fury considered for a moment, "Title; ruler, Queen." She conversed with the Avanishwari, translating the conversation, "Her name, sshe hassss assked me to give you. Ssshe issss Xara."

Rheesa stared for a moment at the sand fury. This was their Queen? "It is an honor to meet you, Xara." she said, bowing low. The Aurorans behind her hastily followed.

"Thesssse people call you Queen. Isss that what you are?"

"Yes, I am Queen of Albion, Aurora and lands far to the north."

Xara clicked something and her mother merely nodded, "Ssshe invitessss you, Avanissshwari. You have been the firsst to conversse with usssss for much time, sssshe would sssee you honored."

"Invites me where?" Rheesa asked cautiously.

"To our praasssaada; palace. Ssiikataasssta Praassaada. Home of the sssanaa."

The 'Sanaa' was what they considered their race, as Rheesa later found out. Xara led the group through the palace, with her mother, Adya, translated her explanations. She told Rheesa of how they had once been Asvini. A tribe that lived quite close to Aurora, known as the Sanaa tribe. Their ancestors had been greedy, though, and when they found an immense diamond in the desert, they kept it. The other Asvini tribes shunned them as they could see the corruption that was plaguing the ancestors' bodies. Many years past and the Sanaa continued to keep the diamond, allowing it to disrupt their bodies enough that the children they birthed were as corrupted as they were. Even when the original tribe members had died, nothing could rid the Sanaa of their curse. They tried to leave the Star behind but found that they could not. The farther they got from it, the weaker they became. They decided to protect others from the curse. Xara, through Adya, pleaded with Rheesa to end her quest for the diamond and warn others of its curse.

"Is there no way to cleanse it? Or destroy it?" Rheesa asked.

Adya glared at her, "If one with enough power were to come along, they could perhapsss, dessssstroy the jewel. But many rasssh kalindi have tried and have only ssssucceeded in their own deathsss."

"I'm a Hero." Rheesa shrugged, "This is what I do. You know, slaying bandits, killing hobbes, vanquishing ancient evils. It's a talent." The fury gave her a quizzical look, not knowing what a 'bandit' or a 'hobbe' was, then shook her head.

"If one such asss you were to die here, Avanissshwari, would not your people come for revenge?"

"Oh, my fortune-telling friend hasn't appeared yet so I'm willing to bet this won't kill me." Rheesa grinned, "Lead the way to this diamond, then, if you wish to be free of this curse."

Xara was clued in to the conversation and silenced Adya's complaints, "Avanissshwari agreesssss. Follow."

They brought Rheesa to a large chamber that had crumbled open on one side. In the middle was a pool of water, surrounded by pillars at each corner. It looked like an old temple of some sort. Beyond the pool, stood a small altar and on top of it, hovered the jewel. Sanaa lined the walls, waiting anxiously to see what would happen, as Rheesa approached the altar.

"...How, exactly, am I supposed to destroy it?" she muttered to Adya. She shrugged and took a few steps back. Rheesa examined the diamond for a few seconds; almost hoping her 'fortune-telling friend' would appear and tell her what to do with it. She didn't. A pin drop could be heard in the chamber as Rheesa pulled out her pistol and tapped it. The sound it made was almost angelically delicate, a soft, ringing sound that lasted longer than it should have. She leveled the muzzle at its center and shot it point blank. The bullet passed straight through as if there was nothing there and embedded itself in the wall behind it. The room began to shake, large chunks of stone coming loose from the ceiling scattered the Sanaa. The diamond was enveloped in a inky, black, swirling darkness.

And man did it look angry.

Xara shrieked at Rheesa and pushed her mother away from the thing. Rheesa drew her sword, readying herself for the shadows that were issuing forth. They were just like the shadows she and Walter had fought in Shadelight. This diamond was connected to the Crawler somehow. Rheesa sliced through the creatures and saw Xara doing the same. The group of Aurorans, who had been waiting outside, came charging in to defend their Queen. Only to have her rebuke them.

"Get back!" she shouted, "I will handle this! Go!" She bashed through a few more shadows and ran to the corrupted diamond. Raising her blade above her head, the queen sunk it deep into the jewel. She fought the power whipping around it and summoned her own, imbuing the tip of her sword with an explosive spell. The diamond shattered.

Rheesa was thrown back violently and landed, with a splash, in the water. When she had regained her footing and wiped the sand from her eyes, she saw Xara and Adya a few feet to her right and the group of Aurorans to her left. She smiled grimly, they had not left. The diamond, however, was gone. All the pieces disintegrated and the corruption that had wormed its way into the chamber had burned itself away. A few Sanaa trickled back in and let out shrieks of joy. They had been released. Though their mutated features did not change, their eyes regained their pupils.

The queen walked over to Xara and her mother and held out her hands to help them up, smiling. The Avanishwari leapt back, in a very similar manner to when she had been healed, and bowed, touching her forehead to the ground. The rest of the Sanaa in the chamber followed her example. Adya bowed as well and thanked Rheesa profusely.

"I was glad to help." Rheesa smiled. Then, suddenly remembering her original purpose, she came up with an idea, "The darkness that was in the Star... was connected somehow to the darkness that is threatening my country. Now that you are freed, would you join with me to defend Albion from it?" Adya translated and Xara frowned, clicking something to Adya.

"Thisss iss attacking your landsss? Thisss ssssame darknesssss?"

"Yes. My mentor and I encountered the Crawler in a ruin not far from here, and it plans to come for my home, my people."

Xara stepped forward, "We... help. You."

Translations;

Kalindi: Child.
Sanaa: The sand fury race/tribe.
Asvini: the sandfolk race.
Avanishwari: Queen.
Kalidas: Servant/advisor.
Praasaada: Palace.
Siikataasta Praasaada: Sandfall Palace